I CHALLENGED the people of Manchester (well, those who were outside Urbis at the time) to see if they could tell the difference between bottled water and tap water.

The premise for our story was to see if paying extra was worth it.

I chilled the tap water, I chilled the Evian, and expected that nobody could tell the difference. Altogether, 20 people must have taken the challenge. All but three got it right.

There was no doubt in my mind which was tap water. A few years ago, British people scoffed at the idea of buying bottled water. Foreigners did it, because they didn't trust their H2O, but we were safe.

Now our palates are more sophisticated. Half the population buys it. And is anyone any happier? Apart from Messieurs Volvic and Evian and people from Malvern and Buxton, I mean.